Beware My Cheating Bart

"Beware My Cheating Bart" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 15, 2012. The title refers to the song "Be Still My Beating Heart" by Sting.

"Beware My Cheating Bart"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 23
Episode 18
Directed byMark Kirkland
Written byBen Joseph
Production codePABF11
Original air dateApril 15, 2012
Guest appearance(s)

Kevin Michael Richardson as the mall cop

Episode features
Chalkboard gagThe true location of Springfield is in any state but yours.
Couch gagA Bill Plympton cartoon showing Homer falling in love with the couch, then leaving it when he falls for Marge, followed by the couch's descent into stripping and prostitution in order to support itself and its baby couch. When the couch tries to commit suicide by throwing itself into a garbage truck, Homer saves it and takes it home to the family; the baby couch becomes Maggie's play chair.

Plot

During a day out in the mall, Homer decides to dump Milhouse and Bart at a children's movie so he can eat at the food court. The boys run into the bullies (who are there to see an R-rated remake of a Hong Kong horror film called "Crawlspace") and Bart is forced to chaperone Jimbo Jones' girlfriend Shauna while she sees a Jennifer Aniston movie. Both of them leave shortly after seeing the only part of the movie that appeals to Shauna (the man's ass) and they hang out in the mall. Bart covers for Shauna when she shoplifts and when they escape from an incompetent mall cop, Shauna says that Bart is pretty cool and shows her appreciation by flashing her breasts in front of him, leaving him both traumatized and smitten with her. Both decide to enter a romantic relationship behind Jimbo's back, but he figures out what's going on soon afterwards. Both attempt to hide from a vengeful Jimbo at Comic Book Guy's store, while the bully decides to stake out Bart's home with help from an oblivious Marge, leaving Bart to come home and face Jimbo's wrath. Shauna breaks up with both of them after some good advice from Lisa, and Bart receives his punishment (being held upside down from his treehouse to have the "fear of God put into him") from Jimbo.

Meanwhile, Homer is persuaded to buy a state-of-the-art treadmill from a crafty salesman. When Lisa shows Homer that he can access television shows wirelessly, he takes advantage of the machine and develops an obsession with watching an old television show called Stranded, instead of working out. Eventually Marge, in a fit of rage, gives away all the spoilers of the episodes Homer has not watched yet. He is initially furious at Marge and threatens to divorce her for ruining the episode, but a romantic evening planned by her resolves matters.[1]

Reception

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 15, 2012. It was watched by approximately 4.864 million people during this broadcast.[2]

Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+, praising the couch gag "in an episode that was anything but memorable otherwise".[1]

Chalkboard gag

Different chalkboard gags appeared for different airings of this episode. The original U.S. broadcast version was "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours", a response to reactions to a Matt Groening interview in which he revealed that the name of Springfield was inspired by Springfield, Oregon, which was widely misinterpreted as Groening revealing that The Simpsons' Springfield was located in Oregon.[3]

Cultural references

The montage featuring Simon & Garfunkel's "April Come She Will" is a reference to the 1967 film The Graduate, though the scene during the montage in which Bart and Milhouse are seen crossing the road is a reference to another Dustin Hoffman film, Midnight Cowboy.

Stranded is a parody of Lost.

Philip J. Fry and Turanga Leela from Futurama make a cameo at the end of the episode.

gollark: There are others?!
gollark: Which is probably slower and harder than just factoring the primes.
gollark: …
gollark: You are aware that ANY prime from it can be factored in less than a second with unoptimized code on my low end desktop?
gollark: What do you want, a maze challenge?

References
  1. Kaiser, Rowan (April 16, 2012). "'Beware My Cheating Bart'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  2. Gorman, Bill (April 16, 2012). "TV Ratings Sunday: 'NYC 22' Starts Low, 'Titanic' Pulls 'GCB' To Series Low". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  3. Busis, Hillary (May 2012). "Forget Oregon: 'The Simpsons' reveals where Springfield REALLY is". PopWatch. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
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